So, this will make AT&T the largest wireless carrier by number of subscribers and leave a very large gap with the current largest - Verizon (when acquired Alltel who acquired Western Wireless). It's always been a numbers game for bragging rights for "the largest carrier in America." I've been a T-Mobile customer for almost 10 years, and the merger doesn't surprise one bit. Most of my background is in wireless telecommunication and back in 1999, I recall a brief conversation with now an ex-colleague that there will be only three carriers to remain (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint/Nextel). The whole Sprint/T-Mobile proposed merger made no sense.

Speaking of T-Mobile, I live up the hill from the headquarters in Bellevue, WA. Assuming the AT&T/T-Mobile is finalized and T-Mobile is no more, which will take at least another year or so due to the legalities involved with the the purchase/selling of the spectrum that both companies own and infrastructure assets. When it happens, traffic will really lighten up, but I feel for all those who will be losing their jobs or being relocated elsewhere into the AT&T borg.

well, at first I was taken aback, but even combined they wouldn't quite rival verizon in size, to put it into perspective. it's not a step I welcome, but I also note that neither has decent reception/coverage in my area, as I know as a former customer of both. what I liked about T-Mobile was that my phones literally worked almost everywhere on the planet - except at home. enough said: a merger isn't going to change much of anything for most of us... I feel about this the same way I feel about united and continental merging.

I recall a brief conversation with now an ex-colleague that there will be only three carriers to remain (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint/Nextel). The whole Sprint/T-Mobile proposed merger made no sense.

Pretty much this. The only surprise is that it took so long for Deutsche Telekom to cut bait on their US expedition.

This is a win win for both companies. ATT gets the spectrum and infrastructure it needs to do a quicker LTE build out. Deutsche Telekom gets to exit the US market before T-Mobile's assets rot on the vine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by melomaniac

well, at first I was taken aback, but even combined they wouldn't quite rival verizon in size, to put it into perspective.

Verizon has 31.9% of the market. ATT + T-Mobile have a combined 41.6% of the market. They wouldn't quite rival Verizon in size in the sense that they'd be significantly larger...

Verizon has 31.9% of the market. ATT + T-Mobile have a combined 41.6% of the market. They wouldn't quite rival Verizon in size in the sense that they'd be significantly larger...

well caught, marvin. misread the stats on my blackberry as 31.6 vs 31.9. the actual numbers of course, as you point out, are different. "if approved by regulators, the newly expanded AT&T Inc. would have 130 million subscribers, allowing it to leapfrog arch-rival Verizon Wireless and its 94 million customers to become by far the nation's largest wireless carrier. Sprint Nextel Corp. would be a distant third."